Sergeant Cleared In Conduct Case

July 08, 1994|By Wayne Baker.

St. Charles — The city's Board of Police and Fire Commissioners has ruled that 19-year veteran police Sgt. Daniel Klinkhamer did not violate department rules when he stopped at the home of a confidential source in Geneva.

Police Chief James Roche, whose personality conflicts with Klinkhamer were noted in a 1993 consultant's study, had sought to discipline the sergeant by charging him with five counts of unprofessional conduct.

The board's verdict of not guilty on all five counts came Wednesday after three nights of testimony conducted in closed hearings over the last three weeks.

"The charges were frivolous," said Batavia attorney Cathy Cavins, who represented Klinkhamer. "I was not surprised at all by the board's decision based on facts presented."

The violations with which Roche charged Klinkhamer included leaving the city limits while on duty, conducting private business while on duty and bringing the department into disrepute as a result of his alleged actions.

The three-member panel found that Klinkhamer did indeed leave St. Charles on five occasions earlier this year, but only to travel in an official capacity to the Tri-Com Dispatch Center in Geneva to pick up and drop off police documents.

At worst, the board said Klinkhamer exercised questionable judgment by stopping while on those trips at the residence of a one-time confidential source. Commissioners ruled that there was nothing wrong in the sergeant maintaining a relationship with the source and that the visits were not private business.

Klinkhamer served nearly 14 years as an investigator, including five as a supervisor before being transferred back to the Patrol Division in 1992.

Roche said the charges were the result of an internal investigation that was prompted by a citizen's complaint that Klinkhamer's marked squad car was parked outside the source's home in Geneva. He declined to comment further.

The study, by Police Executive Research Forum, Washington, said Klinkhamer's open criticism of Roche was the source of potential conflict within the department, mainly because of the sergeant's marriage to two-term Ald. Sue Klinkhamer.